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Vicente Valencia

PPP Executioner | Helping PPP Professionals, Agencies and Equity Providers to market and deliver better PPP Projects | Real Estate Investor | Join 2k Subscribers for this Infra tips and stories

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Featured Post

A superpower everyone can develop

It’s a superpower. But people are not interested in the others’ point of view. Just in theirs. We are egocentric by nature. So listening it’s a superpower. I let the agent to do the talking. My side, just questions and nodding. Disclosures? None… well… there was some flooding… Price expectations? This property in 2021 would be selling by… Yes, but what are the owners expectations today. Well… in January, they received an offer by X and was rejected, now… I’m not sure what they owners will...

about 3 hours ago • 1 min read

Arguments, unfortunately, don’t work. It’s proven. People don’t change their beliefs. At least, not with arguments. The reason arguments do not work is that most people hold their ideas and values without thinking about them. Think of politics. Think of clauses that you’ve seen in contracts. Think of people supporting their favourite teams. There is a strong emotional content in their beliefs. They really do not want to have to rework their habits of thinking, and when you challenge them,...

1 day ago • 1 min read

Impossible. Nobody can be that stupid. Well… welcome to another day. A contractor (let’s call him Mr. Optimism) decided to “save time” on a warehouse project. How? By installing the roof before securing the steel structure with the final bolts. “Don’t worry, jefe, it holds by itself.” Famous last words of every construction project ever. The weather app showed light breeze. New Zealand showed: “Hold my beer.” A 45-km/h gust arrived, grabbed the entire roof like a giant frisbee, and sent it...

2 days ago • 1 min read

In a meeting with an agency not long time ago, I was asked for advice with regards to the team they’ll need to set up for managing a PPP project. Obviously, our conversation started by a “are you kidding me”? Managing multibillion dollar projects required people able to handle multibillion dollar projects. That’s the basics. If you bring to your team people used to manage projects in the range of 10 millions… the focus is not going to be on the right things. The nickelling and diamonding...

3 days ago • 1 min read

Imagine that you write your monthly report. Yes, you’re part of a consortium in a PPP project. You write your report. And you send it to the agency, the government, or whatever. It’s subject to the famous review procedures. The agency sends back comments. They disagree with some of your statements. And you disagree with those statements. What to do? Remember, next month, again the j*dido report de mi€rda. You can be dragged to an endless set of discussions about every single monthly report....

4 days ago • 1 min read

A terrible clause about Force Majeure. A lawyers’ money-making machine with the definition of “Substantial regulatory changes” A few days ago, I had the opportunity to discuss common flaws to PPP contracts. Lawyers can be really good drafting millions of pages. They have no idea how real people deal with those pages in a day to day basis. That was the conversation I had with a student of the mentorship. 5 clauses. 5 headaches. Easily avoidable. The clauses, the potential solutions, together...

5 days ago • 1 min read

Despite being on a Saturday, I received a few emails asking about yesterday contract! Look… I have plenty of examples. Yesterday, it was a PPP in the Philippines… but I’ve been working on a few others PPP project. A fantastic example with nice clauses that are less bankable than a PPP for a data center in North Korea. Kenya. A known highway. The Review Procedure. “Disagreements will be discussed” Literally. Good luck with getting a solution. Discussing can be the more frustrating of...

6 days ago • 1 min read

These days I’m enjoying some interesting stuff. There is a clause. In particular, 13.3 of a project agreement. “Foregone Toll Income & ‘Mutual Agreement’ Extension”** I love the title. It deals with cases where the government prevents the toll road from charging the approved tariff. Then, if this happens, logically for political reasons… The government must either: Compensate the monthly Foregone Toll Income, or Grant a Concession Extension, the duration of which must be mutually agreed If...

7 days ago • 1 min read

These days, I usually panic a little. Just a little. Not because of the “social commitments.” And not because of the alcohol… which, let’s be honest, doesn’t do your health any good whether it’s “only one,” “only two,” December or June. No. It’s something worse. Much worse than overeating and overdrinking. Queueing. For me, queueing is more terrifying than being forced to watch an entire season of Big Brother. Nothing good ever comes out of standing in line. Nothing. Maybe disappointment…...

8 days ago • 1 min read

A nice thing of brining my son to daycare and this being in the same building than the main NZ infrastructure agencies is that you meet lots of people. From the doors to the elevator, people having coffee, hanging out in the sofas, etc. Suddenly a “hey, Vicente”, and then… Some free consultation. Well… not as free, as the coffee is excellent, I always order one. “On me”. The usual suspects are: How can ensure competitive tension? How can I deal with claims? How can I prevent claims? How many...

9 days ago • 1 min read